


Shattered Strength

by Griddlebone



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Angst, F/M, Ficlet, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-05-22
Updated: 2009-05-22
Packaged: 2017-10-10 12:19:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/99669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Griddlebone/pseuds/Griddlebone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An encounter with Kohaku leaves Sango feeling shattered, drifting in the dark.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shattered Strength

Sango was in a dark place. She had been wandering there for hours, ever since the latest battle with Naraku. The outside world darkened, faded, and burned away, leaving her alone in the all-encompassing dark. Alone…

She hated being alone.

There had been a time when she had not been alone. She'd had a place to belong. Friends, family - Kohaku!

Now all she had left was an endless journey and no hope of victory, just the endless striving, endless fighting, and endless sorrow.

She had a dim feeling that she stood alone on a darkened hillside, her face turned to the sky, but none of that seemed real. Instead, she stared into the vast and empty dark, and watched as the essence of memories surrounded her. The memories were tiny and brilliant sparks in the darkness, scalding her skin like so many stars.

Kohaku, Father, the village… cursed, ill-fated friends… stabbed in the back, bleeding, dying… Kohaku!

Her brother, lost to her… Everything, lost.

With nothing left, she felt ready to drift away from it all.

There was a sudden weight against her wrist: not a chain, but a hand, strong and soft at the same time, and blazing hot against her skin. It felt almost as if it were pulling her back…

"Sango."

She knew that name, knew the man who spoke. He had a name, too, though she'd never used it. If she thought really hard, she might remember it.

Miroku. Syllables came to her mind uninvited, throwing her off balance.

There was another gentle touch, the barest brushing of fingers against the small of her back, and an admonition: "Careful, you'll fall."

She thought, detachedly, that if she were to fall, it would be up, not down. Up, to the stars. To accept her pain with open arms and burn in agony for the rest of time.

She felt fragile, breakable, hollow inside and feather-light. But his presence, so close, was comforting.

"Look," he said calmly, as if she were not drifting away, "a shooting star."

She turned to look, her eyes dead and uncaring, and knew she had already missed it. "Yes," she agreed.

She stared, but the stars were as far away as ever, as if his grip kept her rooted to the ground.

There was silence for a long time. She wanted him to say something harsh, to push her further into the dark and close off the light forever. She wanted him to abandon her, sealing away hope with despair.

Instead, when he finally broke the silence it was with hope, a thin strand of light that pierced the darkness in her heart.

"We'll save him, Sango. Don't give up."

Tears sprang to her eyes, unbidden, and she folded helplessly into his embrace. For a long time she cried on his shoulder, took shelter in his arms, her weakness a dark and awful secret between them.

The darkness was still there, ready and waiting to take her.

But she wasn't alone, after all.


End file.
